The storm
forced airlines to cancel more than 20,000 flights. The impact was
bigger at Delta because Sandy also slowed its operations at its new oil
refinery near Philadelphia.

Delta's goal in restarting the
refinery was to maximize jet fuel production and reduce the airline's
fuel bill. But Sandy slowed the refinery's restart, and the refinery
lost $63 million for the quarter and added 7 cents per gallon to the
price of Delta's jet fuel. Delta said it expects the refinery to be
profitable in the current quarter.

Delta said Sandy cut $100
million from its fourth-quarter profit. It recorded another $231 million
in special items. What was left was net income for the quarter of $7
million, or a penny per share. During the same period last year Delta
earned $425 million, or 51 cents per share.

Without special items, earnings would have been $238 million, or 28 cents per share.

Revenue
rose 2 percent to $8.6 billion. Both the adjusted profit and the
revenue were slightly better than expected by analysts surveyed by
FactSet.